Next State of Learning

NH

NewHampshire

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Next State of Learning

New Hampshire

"If we’re serious about putting students at the center of what we do, then we need to change a lot of the things that have been in existence for a long time.”Ellen Hume-Howard, Director of Curriculum, Sanborn School District

In New Hampshire, state officials have done away with the Carnegie Unit – the form of credit which, since 1909, has made time, not learning, the key metric by which schools nationwide measure student performance. They’ve established a core set of competencies all graduates need to develop in order to graduate – and they’ve allowed students to demonstrate mastery of those competencies in a number of ways. And now, eight districts are also exploring a way to assess student learning that relies less on standardized tests, and more on locally developed performance tasks.

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NH

NewHampshire

1997

Began piloting competency assessments

2003

Expanded pilot to 30 schools

2004

Convened state leaders and educators to redefine the goals of the state system

2005

Replaced the Carnegie Unit with Competencies for state
graduation requirements

2005

Allowed for Extended Learning Opportunities

2009

Raised compulsory school age from 16 to 18

2014

Launched PACE

2015

Expanded PACE

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Joe & Kyle

"They treat us like equals here, and that's just really really important."

Paul Leather on Assessment

"We needed to look at something new and try to create something new when it came to how we assess student learning. The old model wasn't working for us anymore."

Paul Leather on Community

"We no longer believe we have the answer about what schools should be. We're more interested in knowing how local communities want to assess learning and hold themselves accountable -- and how can we support the quality that would come out of that sort of approach."

"When we changed the state regulations in 2005, we said we don't care whether or not schools actually do the teaching, we care whether kids are actually learning. And we don't care where that happens, when that happens, how that happens."